Message grouping on my iphone is a real problem, and it doesn't have anything to do with iOS. All the emailed SMS texts to txt.att.net come from different sender IDs making it impossible to group and easily manage on an iphone.

Prior to November of 2010, the solution was to send emailed SMS texts to xxx@mobile.mycingular.com. When these text messages arrived they always came from the same sender allowing the messages to be grouped properly.

What can we do to fix this problem??? I often get hundreds of text messages from monitoring systems and having to delete them one at a time is incredibly time consuming and frustrating.

Moreover, there was a thread open about this where several people voiced their frustration and nothing was done. When someone posted recently to bump the priority, the thread was closed by AT&T representative.

My suggestion would be to not use SMS as your delivery mechanism, use email. Set yourself up a separate email account for these messages and send them to that inbox. They will all then be properly grouped in your email client and it's also fairy easy to mass delete email.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

I find it problematic that the recommendation is to not use AT&T. I am also having a problem with this because my enterprise messaging system uses SMS and it cannot be changed. Is there a system that can send messages from email that does not allow reply and therefore use one sending ID?

AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): I'll be happy to assist you with your text messaging.Me: This also happens on my husbands phone, which is an HTC/Android so I don't think this is specifically iPhone relatedMe: And this appears to be the case regardless of the sending SMTP server (tested with both GMAIL, outlook.com and generic Windows SMTP service).AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): Unfortunately, this issue would need to be addressed from the company's side, as they need to use an enterprise messaging option, rather than an email to SMS one.AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): my company uses BYOD, so this is my personal device but need to use it from workAT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): are you saying my unlimited texting plan does not cover this?AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): It would not cover a specific enterprise feature that you're after. If you can receive the messages, then the network if functioning correctly.AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): The specific functionality could only be supported by an enterprise solution using what is called TAP protocol.Me: So they only way AT&T offers its customers to receive SMS messages from a fixed address when they have a corporate plan with special messaging service? That is unfortunate. Thank you for confirming.AT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): That's correctAT&T Rep (Name obfuscated for confidentiality): The consumer text messaging was not designed to support corporate solutions.

Why would AT&T NOT consider the trivial change of using the From email address of the message instead of some sequential numeric identifier? Even with the obviously intentional committment to force people to implement corporate solutions, this small improvement would dramtically improve this facility.

It would also bring AT&T's consumer text messaging up to Verizon standards where messages from the same sender are forwarded such that contemporary smart phone SMS messaging handlers natively group them into the same message thread.

On the other hand, if AT&T continues to intentionally implement crippled consumer solutions and refuses to consider even incremental improvements, then consumers may well migrate to other providers if this facility is of value.

SMS is faster and more reliable than mms. more and more devices are using email to SMS xxx@txt.att.net from alarm systems to ip cameras and many VoIP services like Ooma. However when each of these send a message thru ATT none of them are grouped. This requires individual deleting and the inability to assign a custom tone to incoming message. ATT has not addressed this issue for over 2 years which has caused my home automation company, HomePlicity here in Colorado to recommend to my customers that they use Verizon. And as I speak with other businesses in my industry they also recognize the only solution is Verizon.

It is interesting how ATT closed the original post. 2 years ago when they killed the feature the demand was small, however this type of automated email to SMS is growing (Alarm systems, Cameras, VoIP, Server alerts, etc..). Based on ATT lack of interest to address this problem, I suspect it will only be solved if there is a significant loss of revenue. For now ATT has forced my hand. I recommend to my customers to switch to Verizon to solve the problem.